My Son
by ChildInMe
Summary: He was always there. Watching. Hiding behind the scenes. Helping his son. He never revealed himself to his son, but knew that one day he would.


**Title: My Son**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Negima, its characters, its settings, etc. Not even the Thousand Master. Sigh.**

Summary: He was always there. Watching. Hiding behind the scenes. Helping his son. He never revealed himself to his son, but knew that one day he would. Oneshot.

**Author's Note: Yay! A Nagi fic! To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised (or very shocked) by the lack of fanfics about the Thousand Master, one of my fave characters. Anyway, on with the story! Review!**

He was always there. Watching. Hiding behind the scenes. Helping his son. He never revealed himself to his son, but knew that one day he would.

Often, the father marveled at the determination of the son, and yet at the same time was dismayed by the simple fact that the boy wouldn't let go of him.

He knew it was a bad idea asking _Al_ of all people to create that stupid hologram of himself.

He sometimes chuckled when he thought that the person Negi was looking for was only a five minutes walk away. But of course, he was the Thousand Master, dammit! Okay, so he might not have graduated from magic school or mastered a thousand spells, but he was still the most powerful mage ever!

The first time he had met his son was six years ago, during the time the demons attacked his village. He had been too late. His brother was dead by the time he finally arrived, to his disbelief. In a fit of anger, he had killed all demons within range. And not a second sooner, he later realized, as Negi had almost fallen victim.

After that incident, Nagi followed Negi wherever he went. Not stalked, right? Just followed, just in case another incident like that happened again. Well, that's what he told himself. Another reason was that he wanted to watch his son grow. Already, he regretted the four years he had missed out on.

Well, Negi did enough to make him proud. Even as a small child, the boy studied diligently. Thank goodness that Anya was there to stop the boy from working too hard. (He had a feeling that Anya liked Negi, but never really brooded on that.) Seriously, his son had to learn the difference between hard work and overwork. Takamichi visited for long periods of time, too. Maybe the guy was amazed by the physical resemblance between father and son. Or maybe he was impressed by Negi's awesome cuteness and skills (which he had gotten from his most handsome and talented father, right?).

When his son had to go to Japan of all places to a ten-year-old teacher, he almost fainted from shock. Okay, he did faint. But only for a few seconds! (Or was it hours? Big deal, it made no difference.) It was only pure luck that some person didn't discover his body in the school hallway.

So he followed his son all the way to Mahora Academy. He noted that all the girls had immediately glomped his son. Aw, the little boy was that cute. It was probably his awesome hair, which he had inherited from his father. Besides, all Springfields (excluding his big brother) were hot looking. I mean, just look at himself! Even Nekane was pretty.

Takamichi was there, but he just couldn't pop up out of nowhere and say, "Heya. What's happening?" He was sorely tempted to, just to see his old friend's reaction in front of all these pretty schoolgirls. Nah. Better not to reveal himself altogether.

Asuna was there as well. She had grown a lot, and had become good-looking. And then there was Eishun's cute daughter, Konoka Konoe. He had to suppress a laugh when he thought about it. Eishun's daughter, Asuna, Takamichi, and his own kid were here. Ha ha. What were the chances of that? If someone else was here (coughAlbireocough), that would have been outright hilarious.

Oh, and there was Eva. She had stalked him relentlessly for many years.

The once stalked man almost fell from the roof he was hiding on when he saw that Negi had gotten himself stuck with the insane vampire! Yup, the same midget vampire who would not leave him alone! Seriously, he was a little worried. Well, he had every right to be. Just look at what happened next.

It was an odd chain of events. Evangeline freaking attacked Negi with killing intention. (And also taking-your-blood intention.) Negi kissed Asuna to make a pactio. Later, Negi would defeat Eva, but not without Nagi's help. You see, the worried father had rigged it so the blackout was over earlier than scheduled. Heh heh. Now if only he could find a way to get Eva to stop dreaming about him.

But of course, Negi wasn't satisfied with just that. Oh no. He just had to go to Kyoto, didn't he? Just to find out about his old man, too. If the father could, he would've jumped out of where he was hiding, go up to his son, shake him and say, "I'm me and you're you! Relax! Be less serious! Just be yourself, okay?"

His son got tangled into something much more complicated. Magical rivalry and rebellious factions were too much for a ten-year-old to handle. Well, that's what he thought at first. Still, Negi rose up and exceeded the expectations. The father was proud of his son.

Only once during the entire time had he nearly revealed himself. Negi had clashed with that Fate boy. (Averrucus…that name sounded familiar to him. He just couldn't put his finger on it.) He had nearly been petrified. But thanks to the power of pactios and Eishun's daughter, the boy had been saved. Speaking of Eishun, the brooding father had surveyed his old friend, but never went up to him. Although he longed to.

After the whole Kyoto incident, Negi had four pactios under his belt, all with cute girls. Lucky little boy. Heh. It brought back old memories. The father could remember many times his rabid fangirls had attempted to make pactios with him. Only a few girls, however, succeeded. (One of them was Negi's mother, too.)

His son was a good teacher, but with one major flaw. He worked too hard. Well, at least his efforts brought up the Baka Rangers' test scores. He also worked too hard with magic. Negi had gone to Evangeline and became her apprentice. Eva and his son as a teacher-student duo. Who would've ever thought that? (Oh dear lord, he noticed that Eva was also training Negi to become a blood bank.)

After the whole incident with that demon, he watched Negi even more closely. After all, something bad might've happened that day. But one thing that he was noticed was the way that his son spared the creature who had petrified his village. As Chamo would've said, Negi Springfield was a man amongst men.

Then came the Mahora Festival. It brought back old memories of when he was ten years old. Not only that, he was surprised to see Al. Who would've thought that he was at Mahora the entire time? That stupid pervert might influence Negi's innocent young mind, too. Still, he couldn't help but be delighted in seeing another one of his old friends. And he also noticed that Al hadn't give up his whole "call-me-Colonel-Sandels" thing. And he and Gateau had assumed it was one of Al's stages.

Again, his son had exceeded set expectations. He and his little wolf-boy friend had managed to enter the tournament. (Kotaro sounded a little bleh, so he always thought of his son's friend as "wolf-boy.") Although wolf-boy later lost to Al, he was still spectacular. Asuna, Eva, Setsuna, Ku Fei, Kaede, and Mana, his son's cute little class members, had also entered.

He was shocked to find that Al did release his memories, personality, and appearance with use of magic. To say the least, it was a little disorienting. To see a perfect clone of his younger self, now that was an experience.

There was Chao. Chao claimed to be a Martian, from the future, and (most shockingly) his son's descendant! Which meant that the girl was his own descendant! He didn't doubt it though, his feelings were always right. The girl was telling the truth. After an ingenious plan by Chao, and a long, epic battle between her and Negi, it was all over. Still, the father would've liked to peek in Chao's family tree. He needed to know what kind of girl his on got together with!

He had hoped that after the Mahora Festival, Negi would quit searching for him. He was wrong. Dead wrong.

Why? Why did his son keep looking for a dead man? Why wouldn't Negi finally let go of him and live his own life? Why? His son's determination and stubbornness were both a blessing and a curse, a source of pride and despair. Did his son really miss him that much? Or did Negi feel that he needed to prove himself?

When Negi and some of his cute schoolgirls left for the magical world, he hesitated…and didn't follow them.

He, Nagi Springfield, Thousand Master, had to have more faith in his little son. Besides, he heard that Racan was in the magical world. Yes, that would be more than enough. So instead, he waited for Negi's return.

He had always been there. Watching his son grow and mature. Hiding almost cowardly. Helping his son less and less as time went by. He never revealed himself to his son, but he knew that one day he would, and say to him, "Well done."

Just not today.

**So? What did you think? Review!**


End file.
